January 3, 1973: George Steinbrenner Buys the New York Yankees

January 3, 1973: CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System, which had bought the New York Yankees for $11.2 million a little over 8 years before, sells the franchise to a consortium led by George M. Steinbrenner III, the 42-year-old native of the Cleveland area who was president of the American Shipbuilding Company.

CBS had far more resources than most tycoons, even one from an industry like shipbuilding -- which wasn't exactly booming in the early 1970s. Yet for all their attempts to "buy a championship," CBS couldn't do it. They didn't even come close.

With the previous regime having gutted the farm system, and the players of the Mickey Mantle generation all seeming to get hurt or old (or both) at once, the Yankees' best finish from 1965 to 1972 was a second-place finish in the American League Eastern Division in 1970, winning 93 games -- a good solid total, but the Baltimore Orioles ran away with the Division, winning 108.

CBS entrusted the running of the Yankees to Mike Burke, a genuine hero of World War II through his service in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, forerunner of the CIA), and later a successful businessman. But while he loved sports and knew business, he couldn't combine the two.

The Yankees fell behind the crosstown New York Mets both competitively and culturally: Even before the Mets' 1969 "Miracle" World Series, they had become more popular, suggesting that a big chunk of Yankee fandom was people who were Yankee Fans only because the Yankees were winning.

Burke was a good man, but a poor steward of the Pinstripes. It was beginning to look like his best connection to the Yankees was an incidental one, in that Gary Cooper, who played Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees, played the character based on Burke in Cloak and Dagger. 

But his deal with Mayor John Lindsay, cut in the wake of the New York Giants football team's decision to leave the City and go to New Jersey, saved the original Yankee Stadium for another 2 generations. So, for all of their respective mistakes, Yankee fans should thank Burke (1916-87) and Lindsay (1921-2000, Mayor 1966-73) for that.

The purchase price was $8.8 million, meaning that, with inflation factored in, CBS probably sold the Yankees at a loss of half the money.

Steinbrenner's group included some interesting names. Nelson Bunker Hunt was a son of oil billionaire and right-wing activist H.L. Hunt; and a brother of Lamar Hunt, who founded the American Football League and the Kansas City Chiefs, and co-founded the Chicago Bulls and Major League Soccer. In 1980, Nelson and brother William attempted to corner the silver market, but that led to a panic on commodity exchanges, and that helped cause the recession of the early 1980s. George knew Hunt through their common love of thoroughbred racing, as both owned racehorses.

Lester Crown, one of the co-founders of the Bulls with Lamar Hunt (who probably met George through Nelson), is the son of the founder of General Dynamics, and was a major banking executive. He has been a great donor to medical causes including a new headquarters for Cook County Hospital
in his hometown of Chicago. (That hospital was built on the site of West Side Park, the Cubs' home before Wrigley Field, and was the basis for the TV show ER.)

John McMullen was a naval engineer, whom George knew from the shipbuilding operation. He served in the Navy during World War II, and the Naval Academy named its hockey rink after him. He sold his stake in the Yankees, saying, "Nothing is so limited as being one of George's limited partners." He then bought another baseball team, the Houston Astros, and a hockey team, the Colorado Rockies. In 1982, he moved the Rockies to the Meadowlands, and they became the New Jersey Devils. His son Peter is now a minority owner of the Devils.

Robert Nederlander is a Broadway producer, and his friendship with George fed George's love of theater, which certainly came into play as Yankee owner on a few occasions.

And then there was John Zachary DeLorean. As an executive with General Motors, he developed 3 of Pontiac's signature cars: The GTO, the Firebird, and the Grand Prix. On the other hand, he also developed 2 of Chevrolet's lesser vehicles, the Vega and the Nova. He founded DeLorean Motor Company and developed the DMC-12, the gull-winged sports car that was customized as the time machine in the Back to the Future movies.

He was arrested for drug trafficking in 1982, but was acquitted, his attorney proving entrapment. However, his legal expenses and the failure of DMC proved his financial undoing.

McMullen and DeLorean both died in 2005, Hunt in 2006. As of January 3, 2022, Crown and Nederlander are still alive, ages 96 and 88, respectively.

When George's consortium bought the Yankees on January 3, 1973, he commanded a press conference, and said that he was bringing in Gabe Paul, the longtime president of the Cleveland Indians, as general manager. George, a native of the Cleveland suburbs, had tried to buy the Indians the year before. He had also owned the Cleveland Pipers of the short-lived American Basketball League in 1961 and '62.

George announced his commitment to building a winner for the Yankee Fans, and for the City of New York. For all that happened afterward, and for all the occasionally screwy ways in which he tried to build a winner could be criticized, his love of the fans and the City could never be seriously doubted.

But he also said this at that presser: "I won't be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all.  I can't spread myself so thin. I've got enough headaches with my shipping company."

That turned out to be wrong. Very wrong.

Under George, the Yankees rose, winning 5 AL East titles, 3 Pennants and 2 World Championships from 1976 to 1981; fell, rose again but not quite reaching the Playoffs, then fell again as George fell into scandal and was suspended from operating the team; then, with general manager Gene Michael rebuilding the team, rose again, winning 7 AL East titles, 6 Pennants and 4 World Championships from 1996 to 2003. The team won 1 more Pennant and World Series in 2009, before George's death on July 13, 2010, his 38th season owning the team, a team record.

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January 3, 1973 was a Wednesday. Baseball was in the off-season. The NFL was in the hiatus between the Conference Championship Games and Super Bowl VII, which was won by the Miami Dolphins, 14-7 over the Washington Redskins at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

There were 5 games played in the NBA that night:

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 89-80 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now named the CFG Bank Arena). Elvin Hayes had 26 points and 24 rebounds.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-105 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Bob Lanier had 38 points and 22 rebounds.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 105-97 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 26 points and 20 rebounds. These rebounding numbers are all real, kids.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics, 123-112 at the Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, 107-100 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Spencer Haywood had the best night of any player: 51 points and 18 rebounds.

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the Carolina Cougars, 110-107 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Indiana Pacers, 109-107 at Freedom Hall in Kentucky. Rick Mount had 25 points for the Colonels. Artis Gilmore had 18 points and 33 rebounds.

* The Memphis Tams beat the San Diego Conquistadors, 123-110 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* And the Utah Stars beat the Denver Rockets, 108-103 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. The Rockets became the Denver Nuggets in 1974.

No games were scheduled for the World Hockey Association, but there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-0 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 8-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Atlanta Flames, 3-1 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The California Golden Seals beat the Vancouver Canucks, 11-3 the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Pete Lafromboise scored 4 goals for the Seals.

* The Boston Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings, the Minnesota North Stars and the St. Louis Blues were not scheduled.